CDC worker flown back to USA after Ebola exposure

Aug. 28, 2014
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MONROVIA, LIBERIA - AUGUST 21: American scientist David Safronetz hands over a bucket containing blood samples from suspected Ebola patients on August 21, 2014 at a newly-opened mobile laboratory for Ebola testing on August 21, 2014 near Monrovia, Liberia. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), opened the lab next to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment facility to test the surge of patients being admitted with Ebola symptoms. The lab has already tested dozens of blood samples in its first two days and expects the number to increase drastically. The facility was shipped to Liberia earlier this week as a joint project between the CDC, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), and constitutes one of the U.S. government's major contributions to containing the Ebola epidemic in Liberia. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 507080605 ORIG FILE ID: 453920572 / John Moore Getty Images

by Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

by Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

An employee with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been flown back to the USA from West Africa on a charter flight after being exposed to Ebola.

The CDC employee is not sick, has no symptoms of Ebola and "therefore poses no Ebola-related risk to friends, family, co-workers or the public," the CDC said in a statement Wednesday.

The Ebola virus can take anywhere from a few days to three weeks to cause symptoms.

The worker is not being isolated and can return to regular work duties at the CDC, but will be monitored for 21 days for fever or any other symptoms of Ebola, the agency says. The employee "practiced good personal infection control" while in West Africa, the CDC says.

Ebola has killed more than 120 of the more than 240 health workers infected with Ebola.

The CDC says the employee in question had a "low-risk contact" with an international health worker who tested positive for Ebola, working within three feet of the sick person while the sick person had symptoms.

According to CDC policy, staff exposed to Ebola are only allowed to "travel long distance" by "private means" for 21 days after the last contact. The rule is based on the fact that people could become ill during flight and need "timely access" to care if needed, the CDC says.

Earlier this month, CDC director Thomas Frieden said his agency was "surging up" and sending 60 employees to West Africa to help contain the outbreak.

All CDC staff who return from working in the outbreak area check their temperatures twice a day for fever, and have been instructed to call a doctor immediately if they develop a fever or other symptoms.

Canada evacuated three members of a mobile laboratory team from Sierra Leone, after people at the hotel complex where the three were staying were diagnosed with Ebola. Although the Canadians have no symptoms, they are in voluntary isolation.

According to the World Health Organization,more than 1,400 people have died from Ebola and more than 2,600 have been infected -- more than all other previous Ebola outbreaks combined.

Ebola has killed more than 120 of the more than 240 health workers infected with Ebola.

On Tuesday, the WHO said it pulled workers from one of its own posts at Kailahun in Sierra Leone after a worker became infected. It said it will reopen the post after it reassesses safety there. Other workers remain in the country, WHO said. The WHO worker, from Senegal, has been flown to a German hospital for treatment.

A British nurse, infected with Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, has been flown to London for treatment. The nurse, William Pooley, is sitting up and in good spirits, according to the Royal Free London hospital. He has also begun taking ZMapp, an experimental drug made by a San Diego company.

That company also provided doses of ZMapp to two American aid workers infected with Ebola. Both recovered. But a Liberian doctor who received ZMapp died earlier this week. Doctors say it's not possible to tell if ZMapp is helping patients, because about half of Ebola patients recover on their own without it.